The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1887-11-25
a MINING ore PosToFFIcE.
Tired Men walk Miles Through SNOW
for Letters from Home.


Tired Men Walk Miles Through Snow
for Letters from Hone.
Denver Correspondence Of Kansas City journal
II was sunday evening IN a Western min
ing town, and the noye we're All II from the
noighboring camps aud foothills TO get their
div. but Win 81 tidtF Me- matter how hafd
tho storm and chilly the biABt, the ppst0hiee
in mining region 1s lSlnd Of a. Mecca 70
which al eyes turn Rqd AL trails lead on
Sunday. Many q time has D miner gone ten
and fifteen miles To the neareet pQstotice N
the hope Of getting letter, Possibly q lode
was not looking very well that week, and the
hope OF receiving letter WIS about the only
thing shat was Cheering Inn up.
Strange isn't 1t, how n man viii so 70 the
postoffiCe week after week, and though get
ting nothing, WI lgst r. e r. sS9eSs
been waiting in yHtn, possibly for months
There are hundreds there waiting for tho
opening OF the postoitiee, ard fall into Two
! long lines, which reach far out into the
street. II is q motley crowd, and In these
| lines you see men whose locks are as white
as the hilvery snow that Is falling on th0m;
men in tho primo Of hfer hale and yigorOns,
ana Others almost boys, ell anzieua for the
| same thiug--a letter or even q paper from
home. And in that line YOU will See women,
new one but women Of tho town; and they,
| too, are hopeful Of receiving letter from
| some one, From whonl2 They only knOW,
but possibly, from loved onea At home, who
|
| for such instances are old stories In the
S'AnyfhinE for me ~ is the oft-repeated
| question, And see each one intensely watch
the clerk hastilyIun through the an or BIS
or ~, etq,,, for the name
| No, sif.n
| Nothing ~
''Nothing.p
These arc the answers most frequently
| heard, and every time 1t ID given q sad and
| care-Wprn face turns away from the window.
| Look at his faOa, for 1t tells Its own story,
| And somelmes he will ask the clerk 10 look
again, for he allnost knows there must be
/ 'iNothine, again IL the reply. Tho miles
| OF truhgtng through the snow over the rough
mountain trails had been in vain, Blue and
discouraged ho may be found drunk in q
Eastern home had Thought Of IL in that light.
! There is young fellow. See, he smiles, too.
| His letter iRa fat one. Three stamps on II.
The addresBis wonan's handwriting. Now
he gets on In corner and stands so no one
can look over bis shoulder and reAas That
letter is from his girl, and its contents he
only will know, Tint weather beaten face Of
his lights up as bright as a May morning.
| Nowhere arc letters more appreciated than
in the mining campo. Men out West, amid
It's exciting scenes, find II iFkBnme TO pickup
pen. They like the pick ard shovel, ham
mer and drill better and yet they are just IS
eager to receive letters. They read and re-
read them by their CABIN fires far up amid
the mountain peaks. Out on the cattle trails
the cowboys viii often carry letters in their
pockets and reread them on th6iflenE dFiv6g
from Texns 10 Montana. Down in the mfae8,
cross-Guta they will pull out old home Iat-
tei's, and by the iliCkerinR light OF the lampa
IN their hats, reread Thorn. And while
iat6erS a9d mPsh9ffa ne oEt Fen wondering
looking for o letter and tTo fereading tina
last one over and over again.